Marked
by AznSage
Summary: Relena needs to learn to accept that Heero and Duo are together. But first, Duo must protect her from any potential harm before and during her peace conference. Will the two settle out their differences without killing each other? 1x2x1, R+1
1. Part I

  
Notes/Summary: This is one of those fics where Relena has to learn and accept that Heero and Duo are together. But first, Duo must protect her from any potential harm before and during her peace conference. The title doesn't make any sense right now, but it's foreshadowing and has meaning now and later. Uh...never mind...just read it...This is more of a stress relief fic since I don't have to give it much direction but know what I'm going to do with it. So it will be worked on whenever I have the time and updated on and off ^^;;   


Part I

Duo stared at Heero. The Japanese boy had not moved for hours, much less breathed. He was hooked to a respirator and various other things. He was alive but the doctor had said that he might be out for about two to three months. Heero had a few broken ribs, a deep gash on his head, and a bunch of scrapes and bruises. But this was Heero, he'd be back on his feet in a few weeks, according to Trowa, who had previously nursed him back to health before. Duo held Heero's hand tightly, hoping the unconscious boy would be able to read his violet eyes and his thoughts. 

_Come on Heero...wake up_

The chances of him waking up were getting less and less as each hour passed and he lost his grip on life more and more. The American pilot was getting more and more worried. His eyes started to get warmer and warmer. 

_Boys don't cry, Duo. Boys don't cry._He tried to hold it in but he just couldn't. He ran out of the room and covered his face. 

"Finally! You came out! You're not the only one who wants to see Heero you know!" The snobby girl quipped to the braided boy. She stormed into Heero's room. She had been waiting for three hours now. And that whole time, they all saw that Duo only sat there and looked at him. She was on the verge of breaking the viewing window and dragging him out, had he not come out a minute sooner. She paused as she was about to close the door and stuck her nose in the air. "At least you could've tried and be pleasant for Heero!" She went back into his room. 

Duo put his head on Quatre's shoulder and started to sob as quietly as he could. "Dammit Quatre! Why did he have to do it!? Why!? That missile was aimed for me!" Quatre said nothing and stroked Duo's hair like a mother does for a child and tried to calm him. 

"Come on Duo. Try to calm down." Quatre brought him to the waiting room. Trowa stayed behind to wait for Relena to come out. 

***

Relena closed the door behind her. She knew yelling at Duo wasn't going to help anything but she felt it was his fault. Nothing was ever Heero's fault. Not Heero. He was perfect. 

She walked up to his bed and sat down. The only noise was the respirator and the heart monitor. She tried to be as pleasant as she could in this situation, trying to make small talk. The fact that he was unconscious didn't bother her. 

"Don't worry Heero. You'll wake up soon. You may not love me, but I love you. And you have to wake up. For Du-" Relena began to cry. The thought of the other boy had made her bring up too many unhappy memories. Most of which were of them fighting and Heero pointing a gun at the two of them. Relena continued to cry for a while. 

Then she felt something move. The arm underneath her hands twitched a little. "Heero?" 

His eyebrows moved slightly in pain and he grimaced as she unknowingly dug her nails into his arm. "...Du...Duo..." 

Relena smiled a little as Heero opened his eyes in the dark room. "Heero. I'm here." She turned around to see if the others were there. She only saw the silhouette of a tall boy there. "Trowa is still here. Do you want to see him?" 

The Wing pilot was still not at his full senses. "Where's Duo?" he murmured dazedly. 

Relena's smile faded. She looked away from him. She was _not_ going to let him see her cry. "I...I'll go find him..." She stuttered as she left the room. She found Duo in the waiting room, still crying on Quatre's shoulder. "He wants to see you." 

Duo looked up. His eyes were still wet and red. He nodded and got up. The braided boy stumbled at his feet and Quatre helped him up. Duo shook his head to show that he could walk and went to Heero's room door. He reached for the knob but he couldn't open it. He couldn't bring himself to open it. His hands were shaking. Only an inch away. He could have opened the door. But instead, he slid down on the to his knees. "I can't do it..." 

***

Hours later, Duo finally was calm again. It was late. Quatre had fallen asleep on Trowa's shoulder and Trowa's jacket was draped over the two of them as they slept peacefully. Duo paced back and forth. He had just went into the room with Relena to see if Heero would wake up again and ran out when he felt Heero twitch a little when he squeezed the Wing pilot's hand. As the braided boy walked around the room for the tenth time, Relena came out. 

"Heero is awake again." She stated this plainly to Duo. Then with a little more triumph in her voice she said "You could have at least been the first thing he saw when he woke up. And you claim to be the one who loves him." She scoffed and scowled at Duo. "Coward." 

That was the final straw. Duo Maxwell was many things but he was not a coward. Or was he? _Stop trying to seem brave. You know that you're afraid to see him in this condition. You know you're the cause. Coward._ "Shut up shut up shut up!" Duo's little outburst caused the sleeping couple to stir a bit in their confused, semi-awake state. 

"Relena-sama," he added -sama with spite in his voice. "you do not _love_ Heero in the same way that I do. You don't understand him! You weren't the one who knew what he had to go through during training, you're not the one who comforts him when he blames himself for past sins, you're not the one who knows what it means to be 'the Perfect Soldier,' you're not the one who tries and makes him forget and live in the present! What you feel for Heero is not love, it's just possesion of something that you can never get! You already own the whole damn world, do you have to steal him from me too, God dammit!" Duo slapped Relena on the face. Hard. 

Relena felt the force of the angry pilot's hand, his words enforcing every ounce of pain on her pale complexion. She absent-mindedly touched the burning sensation on her cheek and opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. _Is that true? Is that how I feel about Heero?_

After Duo had realized what he had done, he dropped his hand, allowing gravity to control it. "Gomen, Relena-sama." he stated calmly as he reached for the door. "But I do mean what I said." 

And, just like a ghost, Quatre had watched this entire scene quietly, while pretending to still be asleep. _Uh-oh...This kinda thing can never be good..._ And as if his lover had read his thoughts, Trowa nodded. 

End Part I 


	2. Part II

Part II

Three weeks later, Heero was back on his feet. He was happy to get away from the hospital: the smell, the sick, and especially of the fact that he couldn't move. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei had already arrived, awaiting the guest of honor to come and help Heero carry his stuff. They didn't really all need to come, but there were just so many flowers and stuffed toys by Heero's bed from Duo and Relena. In the final weeks, they had each competed with the other to see who could get Heero a better present. And, as expected, Heero threw away all of the presents from Relena and kept everything from Duo, which still was a lot. And they had to wait for Duo or there wouldn't be enough of them to carry out the giant teddy bear he had sent. 

Patience was escaping from Heero with every second. He sat there quietly waiting for his love to come in already and kept looking at the clock. Finally, he heard footsteps running towards the room. 

"I'm here!" Duo flung himself on Heero. "Aren't you happy to see me?" He gave a cheeky grin and the Japanese boy grunted and smirked. They stared into the other's eyes for a long time and drew closer with ever breath. The other pilots didn't really mind the scene they were making, except for Wufei, who ran for the tissue box as a river of blood started to spurt out of his nose. 

The two were a mere centimeter away from the caress of the other when a loud whiny shriek came to their ears. "Heero~!" Relena flung her arms around Heero and pushed Duo away. The two boys were surprised at the interruption and Heero pushed Relena out of his arms immediately. "Aren't you glad to see me?" 

Heero gave a scowl of disapproval at Relena and grunted. The only reply he gave her was "Go away. We need to get enough space to move the giant teddy bear." 

Relena pouted. "Well...can I help?" 

Once again, Heero was not happy with the turn of events and was about to reply when Duo cut in. "Sure! We could always use someone to help with moving the bear! And Heero must be too tired to move the bear by himself so I guess it's me and you carrying it!" Heero gave Duo a quizzical look but the braided boy only responded with a sly smile. 

"If Duo's okay with it, I guess it's okay." 

***

Halfway to their shared apartment, on a steep hill, Duo let out a sigh. "I'm tired. This bear is really heavy." 

"Really? I don't think it's heavy." 

"Well no duh! I'm the one who's carrying most of the bear's weight!" The two almost dropped the bear on top of Heero, who was behind them. _Well, I guess now is a good a time as any to initiate the plan._ "Relena-sama, since you're _so_ strong, I guess you can carry it by yourself. I'm so tired! Heero, can you carry me?" 

Heero grunted and picked up the American as if he weighed nothing. His passanger stuck out his tongue at Relena and smiled victoriously. 

Relena was furious. But that had to wait till later because she realized that she couldn't carry the bear by herself and she started to tumble down the hill. As Relena let out a shriek, everyone turned around. They all sweatdropped, except for Duo. 

"Uh...should we help her?" 

"Eh, Q-man, she'll live." 

"That looks pretty dangerous though. And she's not trained or anything to sustain pain." 

"No, see, that doesn't hurt. This does." Duo took out a little remote control. 

Heero eyed the boy in his arms. "That looks familiar." 

The braided boy smiled. "It's one of the many explosives you leave around the apartment. I had to 'borrow' it. Here, I think you should do the honors." He pushed the remote under the confused Japanese boy's nose. Heero grunted and pushed the button. 

Further down the street, an explosion was heard and the sky rained down fur. A little sign saying 'Get well, Heero!' floated down in front of the boys. 

"Did you actually blow up that baka onna?" 

Duo played with his braid and gave an innocent smile. "Well, I didn't blow up Relena-sama but I blew up the poor bear. It's not my fault that she was holding it. Wasn't that a wonderful surprise Heero? Don't you feel soooo much better now?" 

"Hn." The dark haired boy grunted in approval. They then continued the rest of the way home with Duo singing 'Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead' happily in Heero's arms. 

***

Shinigami yawned as the soft morning light graced his face. He had waken to the too familiar clicking of keys. Once again, his partner was sitting up next to him working on the laptop. 

"Hee-chan!" Duo tried to sound as seductive as he could while still half-asleep. "What are you doing?" 

"We have a new mission. Just giving Dr. J the ETA from this safehouse." 

"Already!? You would think that that smelly old man would give you some time to rest! I mean, you _just_ got out of the hospital!" 

"Duo, there's a war going on, there's no time to rest." Duo pouted. He wasn't a morning person and this just made things worse. "I'm leaving immediately, I'll rendezvous with Wufei later at the checkpoint." Heero stated flatly. 

"What?! But I thought that I was your mission partner! I swear to God that old man is trying to separate us!" Getting angrier by the second, Duo stomped of to the bathroom. "Heero Yuy, you bastard, I don't want to talk to you until after you mission! You just keep pissing me off more!" He slammed the bathroom door shut behind him, leaving a very frustrated Wing pilot typing at his laptop. 

***

Duo sauntered out of the bathroom. The shower had been enough to relax him from his previous state of anger. After pulling on a pair of boxers, he sat down to brush his long hair. He hummed happily, forgetting the burden he held, only to be interrupted by a beeping sound on his laptop. Walking quickly to his laptop, he opened the message. 

He scoffed. "Another mission. That's just great." He sarcastically commented and continued reading. "Nani!? I have to protect Relena!? Oh, that's just great!" He started ranting and mumbling to himself about there being no justice, Wufei-style, while quickly pulling on some clean clothes. Grabbing his duffel bag, he stuffed it quickly with a few sets of clothes and stormed out of the room. 

"Duo! What's wrong?" Quatre chimed happily between sips of tea. He sat in the kitchen with Trowa next to him. 

Duo let out a low menacing growl, one that told the blond to back off. The braided boy sighed. "Gomen, Quartre. It's just not my day." He flopped down on the chair and poured himself a cup of coffee, the only thing he could even stand swallowing during the morning hours. 

"What the hell are you complaining about again, Maxwell?" Wufei walked into the kitchen, clearly having only awaken himself from the night's rest. 

"Wu-man, don't you have to get ready for a mission?" 

"Hai, but I can get there fairly quickly. Yuy has a prerequiste part to take care of so I can stay in for a while." Duo grumbled. Everyone _had_ to remind him of his miseries. "Besides not having Yuy around, what's bothering you Maxwell?" 

"I have to protect Relena. That goddamn no good G made me be her personal bodyguard for the peace conference." 

"Hai, we have that mission. We're supposed to be security for the entire time." Quatre took another sip of his tea. 

"Yeah, but see, my assignment is to protect her 24/7 for the next week _until_ the peace conference." 

"Oh, poor Duo." Wufei commented sarcastically. "Me and Yuy will be having fun in Australia blowing up some Aries, Leos, and an OZ base. I'll send him your regards." 

Duo stuck his tongue at Wufei, he was definitely not up for teasing. "Ugh, I have to go protect the Queen of the World. If I go insane from even looking at her, please tell Heero I love him and always will." He melodramatically sauntered out of the shared apartment, head hung low, thinking of a hundred and one ways to kill Relena...then amending it to a hundred and one ways to prevent himself from doing that. 

End Part II  
C&C on that part okay? Onegai? 


	3. Part III

Part III

"Slave, I mean Duo, please get me another cup of coffee." Duo grumpily walked up to the counter. While he was Relena's bodyguard, he was to do anything and everything that she asked. She even gave every one of her other servants the week off. She was definitely going to have some fun with this. 

Drudgingly, annoyed beyond belief, Duo ordered her coffee. He knew if he didn't get it right, she would just send him up again and again and again. He sighed and wondered what he had done to deserve this. _Maybe it was because of the dye I put in Wufei's shampoo..._ He snickered at the memory. Chang Wufei, master of infiltration, master of sword arts, and server of justice, had to go around for a week with pink hair thanks to Duo's 'accidental' addition of bubble gum pink dye into his shampoo. The Chinese boy had chased him around most of the Winner estate after that. 

"Duo, what's taking you so long?" Of course, the shrill voice of reality always called him back to his current, less-than-appealing situation. 

"Coming, ojousan." He had a good mind to spill it all on Relena at the moment. 

And when control decided to spiral out of Duo's grip, he did. Tripping over a stool in the coffee house, Duo spilled the coffee right onto the unexpecting head of the Queen of the World, getting her wet all over and making her look like a drowned rat. 

"Ah~! Duo!" Relena shrieked as a cup of boiling hot coffee spilled right onto her. "Watch where you're going next time!" She grabbed some paper towels to clean herself with and muttered in disdain as her hair was all wet and soggy. "I've had servants better than you! You would think that a Gundam pilot could handle ordering coffee!" 

Duo sighed. He didn't really care how wet and soggy Relena was, his job was to keep her alive, not dry. So, he went for the sarcastic approach. "Sorry, it wasn't in my job description." 

Relena let out a frustrated growl. "Fine, forget about it. Let's just go." She left the coffee house in a hurry, leaving her bodyguard alone. 

"Fine." Duo began to stomp after her, but was stopped by a strong arm. "Where do you think you're going? You and that girl ate a lot and drank a lot but haven't paid a cent yet!" 

The American couldn't believe it. Relena had stuck him with the bill. _Relena_ had stuck _him_ with the bill. Relena had _stuck_ him with the _bill_. Not matter how he said it mentally, it just didn't sound right. The God of Death had just been tricked by a mere politician. He frantically searched his pockets for some money. Finding none just made a bad situation worse. He smiled sheepishly at the owner, then was pointed to the direction of the kitchen. 

To pay off the big meal, Duo had to wash dishes. _This is not how I imagined the mission would be like._ Sure he wanted Relena dead, but they needed her for the sake of peace. _Lucky bastard Yuy got off easy and got to have some fun._ Duo started thinking about what his koi was doing at that moment. _Probably blowing up the base as we speak. Definitely not stuck in some place like this washing dishes._ Duo laughed to himself. All he could think of was Heero at a time like this. 

By the time he finished, Duo had thought of many ways to get revenge on Relena. The sun was beginning to set, so he decided to take a detour in the park to look at the scenery. Tired from washing dishes and walking, Duo plopped down onto a nearby bench and watched the little children playing on the swings. He himself never had a childhood as good as they did and was envious of them. 

_Ah what the hell, there's no one around. Don't have to get back to Relena, she's probably fine. Guess this is a good way as any to kill time._ The braided teen got up and sauntered to where the children were. 

Merry laughter left his lips as he tossed gave the kids piggy back rides and pushed them on the swings. It was so good to feel like a child again. But Duo was no child and he tired easier than they, especially after his less-than-wonderful day. He lay down on the grass quietly and looked up at the sky, at the vanishing orb of fire and the specks of lights…and at his home colony L2, barely visible from the Earth. A wistful look appeared on his face, wiping away his happiness as he remembered the fateful day when the Maxwell Church had been burned to the ground. 

"Onii-chan maigo? Ne, maigo nano?"[1] The shrill voice snapped Duo out of his trance and he saw a little girl next to him, dressed in a white dress and a hat. Something about her was familiar. Something about her words were familiar. Could she be the girl who haunted Heero's dreams? 

Going for the approach that he was sure his love would, he answered "Ore wa umarete kara zutto maigo nano sa."[2] He gave her a small smile and sat up as he said those words, mirroring every word and phrase that Heero had said. He wanted to laugh at himself for acting so much like Heero, but deep down, he knew it was how he felt. The Japanese boy was so articulate at times, even though he was so quiet. Duo turned to say something to the girl but she was gone. Vanished. But her voice… 

Those words rang again and again in his head. "Onii-chan maigo? Ne, maigo nano?" How exactly was he supposed to answer that? 

He just felt like throwing up right then and there. The pressure had definitely gotten to him. Why were they haunting him? Why were his demons still following him? Why couldn't he forget his past? Most importantly, why were _Heero's_ demons haunting him? Maybe this was the destiny of the boy who called himself Shinigami… 

End Part III   
[1]"Are you lost?" basically speaking. It's the same thing that the girl says to Heero in Endless Waltz, during his dream sequence.   
[2]"I was lost ever since I was born" basically speaking. Same thing Heero says in Endless Waltz in his dream. 


End file.
